Edgar Feuchtinger

Edgar Feuchtinger (9 November 1894-21 January 1960) was a Generalleutnant of Nazi Germany during World War II. The commander of the 21st Panzer Division, he was later arrested by Adolf Hitler for passing Wehrmacht secrets to his mistress and for illegally acquiring wealth.

Biography
Edgar Feuchtinger was born on 9 November 1894 in Metz, Alsace-Lorraine, and he served in the Imperial German Army in France and Russia during World War I, rising in the ranks of the Reichswehr between the wars. In 1938, he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in the Wehrmacht, and he led an artillery regiment during the Blitzkrieg offensive in Western Europe. In 1941, he served on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union, and he was later appointed as a panzer commander despite no experience with tanks; his membership of the Nazi Party was one of the reasons for his appointment. Feuchtinger commanded the 21st Panzer Division on the Eastern Front before it was transferred to Western Europe, and he fought against the United Kingdom at Operation Deadstick during the Battle of Caen. On 5 January 1945, his military career was cut short when he was charged with giving sensitive information to his South American mistress as well as gaining money through an illegal fur trading business. He was sentenced to death, but he was freed by the Allied Powers at the end of World War II. The Soviets recruited him to spy on West Germany just as he had spied on Nazi Germany, and he did so until his death in 1960.